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Sanctuary Stone and
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Post Circle
The Sanctuary - an astronomical calendar - part 3
(part 1 click here)
- Close to Silbury Hill on the
A.4 road from Marlborough lies the site of a ruined stone circle
that holds many puzzles.
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| Picture of what
remains today of the Sanctuary Stone Circle |
- This site could easily have been
used as a sophisticated astronomical calendar using the shadow of
the sun to mark out the seasons and festival days of the year.
This article shows how this might have been done.
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- A Giant Sundial
- At the time of the winter solstice
the Sun casts a shadow of 15° which rises to 62° at its
maximum summer height, whilst the equinoxes would show a shadow
of 52°. Checking out all possible heights, for a shadow pole
in increments of 0.1 Megalithic Yards indicated a best fit of
3.2 MY. A hypothetical pole of this height erected at the centre
of the circle would highlight, through the length of the shadow
that it cast, the following dates of the year (based on our calendar.)
Each date is indicated when the shadow from the centre pole touches
one of the rings that make up the Sanctuary monument.
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- The Sanctuary sundial does not show the equinoxes nor the
summer solstice however each of the four
main Celtic festival dates, Imbolc, Beltane, Lugnasad
and Samhain are marked. If indeed this monument acted as a calendar, as I
strongly believe, it supports the idea that Druidic traditions
link back to much older pre-Celtic beliefs stemming from Neolithic
times. A central pole position is marked at the Sanctuary and
there is nothing to disprove its use as an astronomical time
piece. Indeed I would hazard that this use best fits the evidence
of the enigmatic concentric rings.
As a sundial the Sanctuary
circle would indicate the following dates based upon the noon day sun.
| Date |
Event |
| 20/21 December |
Midwinter solstice |
| 30 November/11
January |
21/22
days from solstice |
|
4 February |
Imbolc - Celtic festival |
|
5 November |
Samhain
- Celtic festival |
| 14
February (27 October) |
St. Valentine's Day |
|
5
April (7 September) |
Easter? |
|
7 May |
Beltane
- Celtic festival |
|
6 August |
Lugnasad
- Celtic festival |
|
27
May/ 17 July |
24/25 days from midsummer |
|
Dates generated
by The Sanctuary Stone Circle using the noon day sun angles
throughout the year, based upon a shadow pole of 3.2 megalithic yards
(8.7ft or 2.6 metres) in height. |
In order to operate effectively
the priests and priestesses of the Sanctuary would need such
a timepiece for establishing a rhythm for the great Festivals
that undoubtedly took place at Avebury. If they did not use the
Sanctuary for this purpose, to which it was ideally suited, where
did they establish their Sundial?
Such ideas are speculative showing how such a calendar might
have worked, rather than affirming the validity of the dates
depicted. If such a pole were erected, the morning light of the
Sun would cast a shadow across the circle to the great avenue
of stones that leads down from the Sanctuary to the Avebury monument.
Over the space of just two hours, the shadow line would open
the gateway that gives access to this processional path. Through
this simple means the timing of festivals and ceremonies could
be judged to perfection.
There are a number of other similar monuments to the Sanctuary
such as the one at Durrington Walls that comprise concentric
rings of wood and stone. Orthodoxy suggests that these buildings
were thatched over, in which case their calendrical function
would be greatly reduced, unless of course certain sections,
particularly to the south, remained open to the sky allowing
for specific solar alignments to be highlighted.
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